Free
by 14Gracie15
Summary: He has to walk like him, talk like him, joke like him, prank like him. He has to be him. This is what has been Frederick Gideon Weasley II motto and goal in all his 9 years of living. He's never gotten to truly be himself, but at what was suppose to be an ordinary family get together, will all this finally change. Can little 6 year old Junie Longbottom help set Freddie free?


9 year old Frederick Gideon Weasley II stormed over to the picnic table and sat down on the bench in a huff, letting everyone else know NOT to talk to him. He had been practicing Quidditch with the other older boys in his family up until his Grandma Molly had yelled at all of them to come down before they got sweat all over their good clothes before the family picture later. Too bad for her it was already too late, but he couldn't even find the humour in the situation on account of how angry he was feeling. Stupid Quidditch!

Ever since he had first snuck out on Roxy's new training broom in the dead of night when he was 4 he had been training himself to be a beater, but whatever he did he could never do it right! Sure he was good, people told him that all the time, but he was never good enough. His dad and Uncle Fred had been legendary back in the day, and he had to be as good as _he_ had been. He just had too. Ever since Freddie could remember he had been trying to live up to, to be _him_. He spent weeks planning the best and most complex pranks imaginable in hopes they would be at the same level _his_ had been at Freddie's age and stayed up all night bent over his desk with a piece of parchment in front of him and a quill in his hand coming up with the funniest jokes he could think of just dreaming that one day they'll be as funny as _his_ were. He did everything he could to be just like _him_, but he just never could! _He_ had had pale skin, not coco like his. _He_ had had straight fire truck red hair, not rusty curls. It wasn't fair! Freddie let his head drop into his arms on the table and sighed, closing his eyes as he barely heard the other sweat soaked boys join the rest of them at the table, and he continued to sit there as tears stung the corners of his eyes with one thought on his mind.

I'll never be enough. I'll never be _him_.

* * *

6 year old Junie Longbottom was sitting at the picnic table next to Hugo when she heard steps that could only belong to her cousin Freddie walk over and sit down beside her. She could feel his anger and shame in the air, and decided to wait tell he calmed down a bit to deliver her message to him. She had been trying to find the right time all day since everyone had arrived at The Burrow for a family get together to talk to him, but the moment never jumped out to her as the right time. Currently she was drawing a picture of what Dora and Reggie had looked like last night at the cafe table, Dory with her electric blue hair (though you can't really tell the colour in a drawing) flying as she throws her head back in laughter and Reggie with a rare chuckle escaping his lips. She smiled as she remembered the sound of it, softer then you would have guessed by looking at him. She continued to shade Reggie's long, glossy, wavy hair as dark as she could with her pencil. Uncle Ron would always comment to daddy or mum about her using a muggle drawing tool, but those were the times she would pretend she was a normal little girl that couldn't hear what someone had muttered to themselves three rooms away and go on drawing like she hadn't heard. Because even if no one else besides Uncle Dean could understand that only a pencil could show the live in someone's eyes, or that you couldn't ever get the right shades of colour out of a quill, she did and that's all that mattered.

She got so caught up in her drawing and memories of her many nights spent away from herself that she didn't quit know how much time had passed when she was flood with the overwhelming scent of salt and sweet water that could only be tears. She dropped her pencil onto the table and lifted her head, closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose. Yes, definitely tears, and powerful ones at that. The smell was everywhere, she had to open her eyes to look around to try and find the source. Hugo and Louis were drawing like her, Lily and Dexter were playing a muggle children's game called "Patty Cake", the older girls were talking about cute boys, the older boys were talking about quidditch, and all the adults were scattered about the table talking about so many different things it made her head hurt trying to figure out what they all were. When she sniffed the air again, she realized it was coming from near her. Next to her. She turned and looked over at Freddie, who had his head laying on his arms and sniffed the air one more time. The smell overtook her and she had to grab the table to steady herself before she fell over. Those tears weren't just regular tears. They were too strong, too intoxicating, to be regular tears. They were tears of shame, tears of anger, tears of sorrow and of self-loathing. They were tears of a lost man, tears of a broken soul. She felt sick to her stomach at the pure, raw emotion practically crackling in the air around her.

Her grip on the table tightened 'til her knuckles turned white and she took deep breaths through her mouth to avoid the smell even if she couldn't keep out the taste in the air. She noticed the conversations quieting around her, and tasted the change in the atmosphere. Her family knew that she wasn't normal and had known her give away signs since she was 3 1/2, and she could feel the worry and tension mounting in the air as they all took in her appearance. She knew they were starting to get seriously frightened, but she really didn't care. Freddie was hurting, hurting worse than anyone she had ever know, even Uncle George on his and Uncle Fred's birthday. And she knew why. She had to get the words out, she had to deliver the message she had sworn to give Freddie last night. It might be difficult, and all the emotions pouring out of Freddie so close to her might be making her dizzy and light headed, but she had to do it, and she had to do it now.

'You okay, Jun?" She heard her older brother Frankie ask worriedly, though he sounded so far away to her. She forced her eyes open and noticed everyone's anxious expressions as they all leaned in towards her in concern, but ignored them as she turned her head towards Freddie seeing him as if through a screen as her vision started to blur.

With blood rushing in her ears, and with great difficulty, she managed to unlatch one of her hands from the picnic table and shakily take her cousin's hand in hers, clutching it like a lifeline. Freddie started and lifted his head when he felt a small hand grab onto his and looked up and around to find all of their family staring over at them, and finally at the little girl holding his hand.

"Junie?" He asked in a raspy whisper, tear lines running down his face. She could feel the shame fill the air the moment he realized he had been crying, something she knew he thought he should never do. Because in his mind he was suppose to be a joker, not a crier. She couldn't take the emotions anymore.

"Stop, Freddie! You aren't him and you never will be. Just stop trying to be like he was and be you already. Nobody expects you to be him. So please . . . just . . . stop!" She ground out through her teeth heatedly as she felt hot tears run down her cheeks. She was shaking hard and she knew she had to explain fast or she was going to faint, something she hadn't done in a good 2 years.

He stared at her in shock for a few moments at he realized she knew. She knew what he had secretly always been doing. Then pure anger filled his veins as her words sunk in.

"I have to be him! I have too! What would he say if he saw me NOT like him?! I have to be him for his sake!" He screamed at her, blood boiling. Everyone jumped back in their seats, both from shock at Freddie actually yelling and from shock at the sudden conversation. Freddie had hidden his secret well, and no one but Junie knew of his secret goal in live he had established since he first heard the stories of his uncle and father, not even his parents were aware of it.

He wasn't just mad, he was furious Junie realized. But this she could handle. Anger was always the same type, just different intensities depending on the situation. Yes, she could handle anger. Her mind cleared and she got a better handle on herself, enough to remember exactly what she had been told the night before.

"No you don't Freddie, he doesn't care what you're like. He just wants You. To. Be. You." She said to him while staring deep into his eyes, feeling Freddie's anger all but disappear to be replaced with pure self-loathing and sorrow the likes of which she never felt before.

"How would you know?" He said bitterly in an eerily quiet voice that could only be heard on account that the whole table had gone silent and were staring with bated breath. "He's been dead for 15 years." He finished, glaring at her with all his might, not noticing the fresh tears running down his face or the shocked gasp from all the adults at the table as they made the connection to whom the small children were referring too.

"Because he told me last night. And you know I'm not lying, I already told you Teddy and Jaime what happens when I fall asleep some nights. I float away down a road long forgotten to a place few have seen, and they're always waiting there for me, cause they know I'm coming. They shine and they glow, and they look like they use to. Sometimes there's many, and sometimes there's few. Last night Fred told me to tell you that you need to be you. He said no matter what you will always be his nephew and he'll always love you even if you turn out to be an uptight know-it-all like Percy." She said calmingly with a hint of amusement at the last part and once again Freddie was struck dumb, so he just sat and starred at her for a few moments in a haze along with everyone else in the family as the words sunk in.

"Sounds like Fred all right." Uncle Percy said, eyes watering and a smile on his face, breaking everyone out of their moment of shock and starting a whirl wind of questions.

"Why didn't you ever tell us Junebug?" Her dad asked. And the questions didn't stop there or come from just him, but everyone.

"Who all do you see?"

"What's it look like their?"

"Is it just family, or others from the battle?"

"Is it just you and them or are there other people there too that we've never met?"

"When did this first happen?"

The questions came flying left and right, until-

"NOW THAT IS ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU INSIDE EXCEPT JUNIPER AND FREDERICK! WE CAN DEAL WITH THIS LATER, BUT FIRST LET THE CHILDREN WORK THIS OUT!" Molly yelled over the loud barge of questions.

Everyone got up and moved towards the backdoor, fearing the wrath of Molly Weasley, leaving Freddie and Junie alone outside. Freddie starred at Junie with so many emotions running through his head he didn't really know what he felt. He was almost numb he realized, but he had to ask one more question before he let himself feel again.

"Did he really say that? That he'll always love me even if I'm not just like he was?" He asked quietly. This was something he had to know. He did like the jokes and pranks, but he wanted to read more and he didn't really like playing Quidditch that much either, but he always had to be like Uncle Fred and Uncle Fred didn't read for fun and loved Quidditch. He looked up at her with fearful hope swimming in his eyes.

"Yes, he did. He also said 'Tell him he was born Freddie. Not Forge, and not Gred, and that's okay. Just because he has my name doesn't mean he has to be like me, the same way I didn't have to be like my Uncle Gideon was even though I was named after him. I'll love him no matter who he is or becomes.'. He made me promise to tell you, that's why I went there last night you know. I hadn't seen them for over half a year. He needed you to know that." She said with a smile leaning on his shoulder while taking his hand back into hers.

"Really? Promise?" He all but whispered.

"Yep." She whispered back. "Are you gonna be you now Freddie?"

"Yes, or at least I'll try. I'll still tell jokes and pull pranks though. It's in my blood." He said with a small laugh before turning his head to look at her, "Thank you for telling me Junie. I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"It's okay. You've put up with my freak outs. Now we're even." She said, smirking up at him.

"If you say so. Let's go inside." Freddie said with a laugh, standing up and pulling Junie with him. They walked towards the back door of The Burrow hand in hand, laughing.

"Oh, and Junie?" He asked suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"Can I borrow that Muggle book you're always hiding under your pillow that your dad banned you from reading? Divine Comedy by Dante? I've always wanted to read it, and now that I'm free I can finally let my inner Percy shine!" He exclaimed dramatically with a goofy small on his face that Junie hadn't seen in a long time.

"Anything you want." She answered laughing along with him, deliriously happy to see him so happy and just so _alive _finally.

And she realized Freddie was right. Now, he was truly free.

**Okay, what do you think? This is kind of a teaser for my next planned story, the main idea of which is listed in my profile. It'll take place when they're older but it's going to have a lot of the same characters and it will fully explain Junie's oddness. Thank you, and If you read it please review so I know I'm not just writing to myself! Thanks =)**

**FYI Junie Longbottom along with Dexter and Frankie are my OC and there the only characters in this story that are mine. Everybody else belongs to one miss J.K. Rowling**


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